Airline gives employees $1.1bn

Delta Airlines is being generous, and people working for its competitors are not too happy.

The big news in the US airline industry is Delta Airlines sharing $1.1 billion in profits with its employees. It is the fourth year in a row that the carrier is sharing more than $1 billion.

Understandably, employees at other airlines are jealous. American Airlines’ pilots, for example, are “getting more upset by the day”, the Chicago Business Journal reports.

American Airlines shared $241 million with its employees in 2017. Their contract, signed in 2015, does not include any profit sharing.

The trend is widening into what’s being called a profit share gap. Southwest Airlines is sharing $543 million with employees, United Airlines $349 million.

Pay boast
Delta boasts that sharing more than $1 billion a year for four straight years is “a milestone no company in history has ever achieved,” in the words of chief executive Ed Bastian.

The airline is being generous with its bonuses too, giving aircraft captains further bonuses of between $29,000 and $59,000. By contrast, United’s captains are getting $9,300 to $20,500, American’s captains $3,600 to $7,500.

This is despite Delta’s most recent annual profits actually falling 18% in 2017 to $3.6 billion. The carrier says its employees are making 80% more than they did in 2008.